Here is a declaration of dependence, a plan for joining God rather than asking Him to join me.

Psalm 18:29 “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.”

[This is a powerful picture of David’s dependence on you, Lord, seeing his own weakness in the light of your wondrous might. Humanly speaking he could, on his own, easily move toward an enemy and climb a wall, but he knew from experience that doing so in your strength is vastly different than doing it on his own.

He moved forward in your power by praying in preparation for the battle, seeking your wisdom, asking your help. Here are examples where this is specifically shown in the Old Testament.

As a shepherd he fought bears, lions and Goliath, defeating them all in his faith in God.

In 1Samuel 30:8. David and his men returned to their town, Ziklag, to find that the Amalekites had come and captured all their families and goods. Instead of rushing off to rescue them, David first went to God in prayer, he “inquired of the LORD, ‘Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?’ ‘Pursue them,’ he answered. ‘You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.’ And David with his few men did that, defeating a much larger force and getting everyone back.

In all the stories of the Old Testament, there is no record of David ever being wounded in battle. He knew your protection, Lord, your power, your provision in the hand-to-hand combat in dozens if not hundreds of battles he participated in.

He declared, “Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle” (Psa. 140:7). Therefore, it was in your active power that he trusted. He saw clearly that even in the common doings of his day, he needed your help and he prayed for it.]

Lord, help me to be that dependent on you as David was, realizing I need your power in even the mundane things of life. Help me to be consistent in praying through my day, in asking for your guidance, protection and power in all that I do.

May prayer be the foundation of all, as I remember your words in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Psalm 18:27b “but [you] bring low those whose eyes are haughty.”

[This you also do in your love, Lord: you humble those who live in the darkness of self-delusion, encouraging them to come to you in the light. But unfortunately, they prefer darkness, thinking they are good enough to get to heaven, thinking they are better than those around them.

Lord, how easily I get caught up in that same sin, thinking negative, critical thoughts of others, comparing myself to them rather than you. The truth is that the negative I see in them is also potential in me, if not actual; I could easily do the same things I proudly condemn in them, blithely underestimating the evil of my old nature.

Yes, Lord, keep us in the light of your revelation and bring us quickly to repentance when we are proud, so that we may immediately submit to you. Then we may be raised up to living in the luster of your love rather than the darkness of our deception.

Psalm 18:27 “You save the humble”

This, Lord, is your requirement for salvation: humility, which can be defined as “seeing ourselves as you see us.” And humility’s prime characteristic is teachableness. Will we allow God to teach us or will we go our own way? Humility is also the doorway through which comes grace: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” When we are humble, admitting our need for a Savior, then God gives us grace. And what is grace? Getting the opposite of what we deserve.

As we stand before you, the Mighty, Eternal One, the Star-breather, the Galaxy-maker, the History Beginner and the Ender of time, the Pure and Powerful One, what can we do but see our sinfulness, our unworthiness, our puniness, and yes, our putridness. We see the immense contrast between our shriveled, rebellious hearts and the stunning beauty of your gracious Holiness.

To you we must bow in humility, accepting your view of our situation. Somehow you work with our will to bring the desire and the decision to surrender, to reject the illusion of independence for the healthy reality of total, healthy dependence on you.

This is the paradox of life: to be free we have to be dependent on, surrendered to you, to Truth, Love and Life. What a wonderful God you, Lord Jesus. May I honor you in my life today.

More from my autobiography

In the summer of 2005 while we were in the States, Pastor Paul, the pastor in my home church in Connecticut, challenged me to begin praying for revival, both for myself and for the church. I took up his challenge and added this to my prayer list.

The word “revival,” brings to mind exciting times of growth and expansion: changed lives, better relationships, spiritual passion, people coming to the Lord, church growth.

However, as I began to pray about revival and to look at instances in Scripture, it began to dawn on me that revival was more about the revelation of sin, repentance and making things right with God, with myself and with others. This was not an experience that was warm and fuzzy, exciting or pleasant. But it was good, powerful and transforming.

In Isaiah 6:1-8 is a description of a personal revival. All the elements are laid out for us to see.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

Revival begins with a deeper revelation of God’s holiness. Seeing more of His purity, His greatness, His glory, His immensity brings a whole new shift in our perspective. We see this in Isaiah’s response, as he is brought to his knees:

“’Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’”

Seeing more of God’s holiness results in becoming more aware of our own sinfulness. The light of His presence shines brightly to expose the darkness of sin in our old nature: in our thoughts, our motives, our actions.

This new clarity brings to the heart and mind not just a mild response: “Sure I’m a sinner,” but a deep realization of the horribleness of our rebellion against a holy God. We begin to grasp the terror of being a sinful person in the presence of the GOD Almighty who will judge our sin.

Revival has to do with having God expose our sins in powerful, overwhelming ways to bring us down on our faces before Him. Such awareness of God’s holiness will “undo” us—tearing away the natural perception we have of ourselves and moving us further into the realm of spiritual Truth.

But this is not the end; there is one more step in the process of personal revival:
 “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

“With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ ”

This third aspect of revival is the process of grasping on both a deeper and higher level how much we are forgiven.  The exposure of how horrific our sin actually is, means we can more clearly see the greatness of God’s forgiveness. Such full forgiveness flies in the face of all logic, all legal understanding, all human thought and emotion. God has every right to condemn us—we are his enemies because of our sin.  Yet, He chooses to redeem and forgive us at great personal cost.
In a revival, the revelation of God’s holiness and our sinfulness enables us to grasp these great truths emotionally as well as intellectually.  In the midst of this deeper understanding of how much we are loved and forgiven, we are “redone,” transformed to be a more useful instrument in God’s hand. We can see this in Isaiah’s response to God’s call.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ ”

Revival brings a deeper surrender, a greater usefulness, an increased spiritual stamina. Isaiah’s revival helped him join God and move through a whole lifetime of great difficulties and trials.

I believe that this was just the beginning for him; I believe that Isaiah had an ongoing revival, starting with this initial encounter with God. I also believe that God intends for each of us to have a life of ongoing revival.

Spring time! My favorite season, full of promise and hope. Every day the sun comes up earlier, every evening it goes down later. It is a reminder of the newness of Life that Jesus brought to us, and brings to us new every day.

The chores of winter have dropped off my list such as filling the humidifiers, checking the heater, keeping the doors to the bathroom and bedroom closed.

Life is easier with no more dark mornings, no more early darkness in the evening. The peep frogs are out, the Canadian Geese family has arrived on the pond. The daffodils have lifted their sunny little faces to the sky. The forsythia has shyly started to show its bright yellow petals and the lilacs have a touch of green on their branches.

The April afternoon sun now shines  down on us, burning away the memory of cold mornings. The temperatures are up in the 80s and  tomorrow I will wear shorts to work.

It is a season bursting with life, wiping out the greys and blacks of winter, leaving behind the frost and snow. Even the moon looks warmer at night.

Soon the trees will get their red aura, ready to burst into the delicate green of new leaves and then darken into the deep green of summer.

I like it when spring comes slowly, beginning with the soft green fizz of the first leaves on the wild rose bushes, moving on to the red sheen of maples, then the fine green of newly sprouted grace. Each step of spring bringing more and more beauty until the full sheen of summer emerges to overwhelm the softness of Spring

Yes, this is my favorite season, a gift from God, and I am enjoying it immensely, giving thanks to Him that He loves beauty and shares it with us. I hope you are, too.